Sunday will mark a year since Show Me The Way To Santiago was launched. Book sales have slowed since Christmas, but at least the possibility of book launch events is now back on the horizon
Comments closedWritings and Poems
Writings and Poems
Sunday will mark a year since Show Me The Way To Santiago was launched. Book sales have slowed since Christmas, but at least the possibility of book launch events is now back on the horizon
Comments closedWell we are 3 months (one quarter) through the year and I have covered 1/3rd the distance and 5/8th of my Show Me The Way To Santiago journey. Only 728 miles to go!
Comments closedDelighted to confirm that two of my poems have been accepted by HybridDreich for the August Dreich Family Too Anthology
Comments closedA poem from earlier in the year, reflecting that whilst we in the North may have had our historic differences, we have so much more in common than those down in the ‘south’ espoused by certain politicians.Border
Comments closedI am delighted to say I have been approached as a writer and poet to be part of an event to be held via Zoom on Tuesday 23rd March. The event will reflect UNESCO themes around linguistic diversity and how words/poetry can touch people at grass-roots level
Comments closedI heard today that my submission of the final draft of my Book A Very Alternative Coast to Coast has been accepted by my publisher, Curious Cat Books. We will work on finalising the book later in the year, with a publication date probably being between September and December.
Comments closedThis 20 page Guide covers the route taken by John and I in 2017, along the Via Augusta from Cadiz on the south western Atlantic coast of Spain to Seville. It took us six days and was a follow on from walking the Via de La Plata, a year earlier. The guide has both a written explanation of the route and a diagram of each day’s walk.
Guide to the Via Augusta
A poem after Denise Levertov. Her classic question and answer poem about Vietnam was a start point. My subject however, was a reflection on my walking from Seville to Santiago and my writing of that experience, in Show Me The Way To Santiago. In particular, the conundrum as to why there seemed to be an absence of dialogue about, or recognition of the impact the Spanish Civil war had on Spain and its people.
Enchufe
26 copies of Show Me The Way To Santiago were sold during December, making it the most successful month of sales since publication. The figure includes an impressive 10 paperbacks bought in the USA. 119 copies have now been sold across all formats and the total raised for MNDA, once all payments have been received will be £577. add to this £125 from Calendar sales and the total raised for MNDA has broken £700.
Comments closedI have now sold 100 books across all platforms and over 50 calendars and have raised over £650 for MNDA in the process
Comments closed98 books and 30 calendars now sold and the total raised for MNDA, once all monies have been collected from book sales will be £552. £77 has been raised from calendar sales. A grand total so far of £629.
Comments closedAs a special offer I am offering signed copies of Show Me The Way To Santiago, plus a calendar, bookmark and a CD for £15 plus postage and packing (£3.50). This offer still provides a contribution of £5 to the Motor Neurone Disease Society
Comments closed90 Books and 25 Calendars have now been sold/ordered and the total raised for MND is nearing £600
Comments closedThis poem takes me back to Winter Sunday evenings in my mid-teens. My mother seemed to have a love affair with health food and natural ingredients and used seaweed based agar agar as a setting agent. I was the eldest of three, my brother 7 years my junior and our sister 7 years his junior.
Your infused chocolate
mousse was a Sunday staple,
I can taste it still.
A slightly grainy texture,
chocolatey, not in a traditional way,
slightly soapy,
matt with no
sheen at all.
You could hold it on the tongue
and it would slowly dissolve,
little bubbles of nothingness.
You paired it with apple crumble,
pineapple rings or tinned peaches.
Carnation if we were lucky,
a perfect end to a Sunday tea.
In the half-light of Winter,
within the cramped kitchen,
where burning anthracite and
steeping nappies fill my nostrils
and the Maiden hangs
overhead, draping
mothers’ pinnies,
fathers’ string vests
and Beethoven
soothes my baby
sisters’ cries
This was one of the poems I read tonight at a celebration open mic evening for the publication of SHE, a collection of poems by the very talented Sharena Lee Satti
Comments closedPleased to be able to join Sharena to celebrate the publication of her poetry collection SHE tonight and to be able to ‘zoom meet’ many other local poets to hear Sharena read and to also share each other’s poetry
Comments closedAdverbially Challenged Volume 5 is scheduled to be released on Saturday 21st November and will contain my flash fiction piece ‘Night Vision’ Kindle versions are available for pre-order now on Amazon and paperback copies will be on sale from the 20th November, again on Amazon. For every copy sold £1 will be donated to the Charity ‘First Story’ which supports and encourages the development of creative writing by young people in schools.
Comments closedMy short story radio play ‘Mother-in-Law will be broadcast on BBC Radio Leeds tomorrow (Friday 13th November) on the Gail Lofthouse Show between 1and 2pm.
Comments closedI have just finished writing the first draft of A Very Alternative Coast to Coast. I am going to have a break from it for a few weeks and pick up the task of self-editing and rewriting in January. I would hope to be working with my publisher on it by April next year.
Comments closedThe Empire strides fThe Empire strides forwardorward
Click on the link to access the poem
Comments closedI have now sold 87 books and 15 Calendars and the combined amount raised for MNDA from these sales has now topped £500. Thank you to everyone who has bought books and/or calendars
Comments closed